


A thirst for knowledge, a couple of miscalculations and a blue crystal

by Hamlet_aux_oignons



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2021-02-19 02:02:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22470082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hamlet_aux_oignons/pseuds/Hamlet_aux_oignons
Summary: The adventures of Temel Dorne (and some of his past incarnations), a reluctant Warrior of Light who initially came to Eorza to seek a quiet life. Needless to say he found the opposite.
Comments: 1





	1. Just another day in Amaurot

Walking silently through the empty hall of the Convocation, Hades was wondering why the others members seems to think it was a necessity to make reunions so often; particulary when it was a lovely afternoon where he could be napping under a tree or doing anything else rather than sitting for hours in an uncomfortable seat. Besides, outside of the nomination of the new person who had obtain the place of Jezehorel, the subjects of the reunion were rather boring.

Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t notice the person who was waiting in the corridor and walked head first into them. Swearing internally, he prepared himself to be taunt by the person he walked into.

“… Are you alright?” asked the other.

Hades froze; out of everyone what **they** were doing here? He would have been less surprise to meet Hythlodaeus. Swearing once again, this time externally, he took the other Amaurotine by the sleeve and grabbed them (not without difficulty, as they were rather massive) to the nearest room, luckily empty at this hour.

“What.Are.You.Doing.Here?” he hissed. “This part of the building is strictly for the members of the Fourteen; if someone else see you there, they’re going to have your head. Have you lost the little common sense you had, Elpis?”

“Of course I’m doing well.” answered cheerfully his friend, unfazed by his outburst. “And what about you? Long time since we last met.”

“Don’t evade the question! What is it this time? A dare from Hythlodaeus? You wanted to test the security of the building? You know that working under Elidibus won’t protect you.”

Elpis shook their head with a chuckle and bent themselves to be face to face with him. He stepped back, slighty disturbed.

“What are you...oh.” At the place of their usual white mask was a familiar red mask with white decorations. “Jezehorel? But why..? How did you..?” asked Hades.

“So you finally noticed!” said the new member, still cheerful, straightening themselves. “It took me time; first, I had to blackmail Elidibus. Oh, getting things against him was a difficult task, trust me, but I succeed. Then I had to do the same with Lahabrea; way much easier this time. Then bribing a member or two and some other trivial things. Luckily for me, Hythlodaeus was more than happy to help me with everything.”

Hades sighed and resisted the need to facepalm himself; he had always wondered if Hythlodaeus and them had an on-going competition about who would be the first to pissed him off. Not waiting for him to answer, they added:

“Oh, I’m so sorry for not telling you sooner about that, Hades. It’s true you would have probably love to join Hythlo and me into blackmailing the members of the Council. But at the time, I thought you had better things to do, like napping at your desk or ducking out of a reunion. I wanted to be sure of my nomination but I’ve got the validation from Elidibus’ part only yesterday. You can trust me when I say I wanted you to be among the first people to know about my new post. **Unlike a certain person who decided to not say a damn thing when they’ve got nominated.** ”

“Unlike a certain person…? Hey! It’s… It’s wasn’t the same thing!” he protested, slapping them in the chest.

“I know, I know...” they petted affectionately his head and chuckled when he bashed their hand away. “Things always get **so** particular and **so** unique when it’s about yourself. But you better watch out, you’re going to bore yourself to death one of these day with this attitude.”

“And since when this conversation is about me?” grimaced Hades, who absolutely didn't want to talk about himself and slightly vexed. “We were talking about your nomination if I remember correctly”. He sighed once again and rolled his eyes; Elpis was a genius when it’s come to changing the subject of a conversation or avoiding questions. If he didn’t recenter quickly the subject, they were probably going to turn it into a lecture. “Let me ask again: how did you get the Jezehorel post? And please, be serious this time, because even if I don’t want to, we still have a reunion to attend.”

He could literally feel them arching an eyebrow behind their mask and felt the need to kick them once again.

“Well I was serious when I said I’ve only got the confirmation from Elidibus yesterday; of course he had already asked me in the past if I would be interested one day to have a seat at the Council but I’ve never pay to much mind to his questions. You know that the rumors about a member of the Fourteen leaving were common this week so I was only half-surprised when Elidibus came into my office yesterday to offer me the seat of Jezehorel. Offer that I’ve accepted.”

“...I think I prefer the version where you had blackmailed Elidibus, because I refuse to believe he decided that choosing **you** at a post with high responsabilities was a good idea...”

“Be aware, Mister Oh-so-mighty-and-perfect-Emet-Selch, that I'm good at my job and that unlike you, I’m really working during the office hours. And by the way, I can return you the compliment; I’ve had a hard time believing they were perfectly sane when they offered you this post. ...But then I remembered they proposed the job to Hythlodaeus at first so it’s explain a lot of things.”

“Hm, can’t really argue with the last part…" Once again, he sighed. "But that being said, we better be going now. We will all the time to finish this conversation later in a more... appropriate place.”

Elpis nodded and opened the door, whistling an air that Hades had never heard before.

"And I don't spend my whole time sleeping at my office." he said, joining them in the corridor to walk along side them. "Stop the nonsense."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever..."

“... There is still a point I need to ask you, before we start the meeting with the other; if you’ve got your place yesterday, you must have received your mask around the same moment right?”

“Yup. Why?”

“Care to explain how you managed to shatter it in less than one day after receiving it?”


	2. A memory between two pages

Temel put back the book on the shelf with a sight; it was the last one in the history section of this part of the library. Leaning on the bookshelves with another sigh, he looked at one of the creature responsible of cleaning passing at the other side of the room. When he had come to the forbidden part of the Great Gubal Library, he had hope he would be able to find some information or at least a vague clue about Amaurotine and its time period; he thought that knowing the size of the Ascians ego and nostalgia, they would had found a way, even very indirect, to talk about Amaurot. But unfortunately, he had found nothing yet. Maybe he was looking at the wrong place and he could find something in the regular part of the library? Or maybe he was just searching the wrong thing to start with and he needed to change his subject; perhaps if he looked for the first mention of Hydaelyn and/or Zodiark, he would be more successful.

While trying to sit down, he accidentally knocked a book which ended up on the floor; it opened itself and the half of a head emerged from the book. The creature looked around the room before starring at the Warrior of Light who was now sitting cross legged. He held its gaze and raised an eyebrow. The head blinked slowly before disappearing into the book, which closed itself loudly.

“That’s what I thought...” he muttered.

When was the last time he came here? It was probably when he had to find that book for Yayake. He snorted; making the Great Gubal Library accessible again to everyone… A wonderful idea which will probably never happen. The receptionist of the Thaumaturge's Guild had been right when she send him deeper into the forbidden section to look for the index; the Sharlayans would have never left this kind of book where anybody could have found it. But unfortunately for her, the book was a fake; should someone start to look for the books written on the index, they would be attack as soon as they would open it by the creatures hidden between the pages. Actually, even if Matoya was staying behind when it happened, all the books which had entered the category of index, inventory or catalog about the library had been taken by the Sharlayans when they left Eorzea. A fact he never revealed to the receptionist, not wanting at the time to answer the questions which would had followed his statement. And luckily for him, it seems she was too busy with the Guild’s activities at the moment to continue her project with the library.

Unlike Yayake and most people thought, Sharlayan wasn’t a nation which was for sharing knowledge with everybody, as proved which what happened when Leveva Byrde shared her knowledge of astrologian magic; it was a nation with a majority of arrogant people with an ego of the size of a mountain, who thought themselves superior because of their so-called “neutrality” and because they had never been engaged in “barbaric” activities. He was pretty sure that even the Garleans weren’t that egocentric.

Temel grimaced; Sharlayan was observing everything that was happening in Eorzea; with their “neutral” point of view, yes, but still observing with attention. There was a high chance that someone in Idyllshire send them reports about what was happening in the region of the ancient colony; should the Forum heard of Yayake’s idea, they would probably either send people to repatriate the whole library to the Old World or they would find a way to destroy the buildings and its books. Which would be a shame, thought the adventurer, stretching before leaving the room, as the construction was a true wonder of architecture and magic. Even without the magic security, anybody could easily lost their way with the myriad of stairs and secrets passages. He had also learned from a recent conversation with Matoya that Great Gubal was actually way much smaller than it looked, as magic and other artifices were used to give the impression the bookshelves were endless.

The mime chuckled: for the Sharlayans children who used to lived at this colony, the library was a place full of mysteries and more or less forbidden, as they could only entered if an adult was here to supervise them. When he was little, he and a couple friends decided to see how far they would be able go into the library without being catch by a “grumpy golem” (that’s how they used to call the librarians at the time); for an unknown reason, they had been able to go into one of the forbidden section of the library without being catch. Of course, the protections weren’t deactivated and they would have been killed by a creature without the intervention of a librarian who was passing by with a user. For his part, he only remembered he had moved away from the group at a moment to read a book who had fallen on the floor and he hadn’t notice anything until someone had tried to snatch the book from his hands. The good old time.

Tapping a book to open a passage, his thoughts turned back to Amaurot; the city had left him with a feeling of nostalgia: something was or used to linked him there, as it had been implied by the shade and Emet-Selch. But probably because Amaurot and its inhabitants reminded him in a way of Sharlayan: clever people who were talking about what was happening elsewhere like some people talked about the weather. Maybe he would be able to find some answers in Sharlayan about Amaurotine or the beginning of Hydaelyn but he would only go there when it would be the only solution left.

Temel found himself back in a public section of Great Gubal; with a smile, he wondered how Moren would react if he ended up here. The tiny library of the Crystarium was wonderful but terribly small compared to size of the tower. The warrior’s smile turned into a wicked one: after all, didn’t Yayake said it would be a shame to let’s the books turned into dust nest?

***

Making his way through the city, the Exarch was wondering for which reason Moren had send him a message begging him to come to The Cabinet of Curiosity as soon as he could. He could only hoped it was nothing too serious.

When he entered the cabinet, he was shocked to see the room full of people chatting around the tables which were covered by books.

“Sir! I’m glad you were able to come!”

G’raha turned around to see Moren coming into his direction.

“What is happening here? Is there a problem?”

“Quite the contrary Sir!” answered the librarian who looked like a child who was having his Nameday. “The Warrior of Darkness has apparently found an abandoned library and was able to bring us back some books!”

The Miqo’te blinked in surprise before accepting with a smile the book Moren was handing him. Of course, his Warrior would have found the time despite his own problems to look for books to help the members of the Cabinet. What was a true wonder however, was how he had been able to find a library; G’raha had himself looked sometimes to find one but without success. Maybe Temel had received some help from the fairies. Out of curiosity, he went to last page of the book; just like he has thought, the library from where it was coming from had embossed the page with its logo. The design was looking curiously familiar to him. Frowning, he brought the page near a lamp to have a better look. He wasn’t able to stop a strangled sound to escape him when he suddenly remembered when he had seen this logo.

“Is everything alright?”asked Moren who was lost in two book at the same time.

“Oh.. yes of course” the Miqo’te answered, straightening his posture. “Did you know where I could find the Warrior of Darkness? I want to thank him for his… gifts.”

“He was still there a moment ago. Maybe upstairs in the Cabinet?.”

Thanking the librarian, he effectively found the Warrior apparently lost in his thoughts who was leaning on one of the barrier.

Clearing his throat to catch his attention, the Exarch handed him the book opened at the last page with a pointed look.

“Whoopsy daisy, I totally forgot about that.” said Temel who looked anything but sorry. “Bah, don’t worry about it, they probably won’t pay too much attention to it. And if you are worry about the contents of the books, be aware I spend all the time I needed to select them; the majority of them are either novels or the author is indicated nowhere. And technically, I wasn’t lying when I said it was abandonned.”

Rolling his eyes, G’raha leaned on the barrier near him.

“You know, when I… woke up from my sleep and I walked around what was left of the world, I ended up in a place which was used to be called Idyllshire. When I said I wanted to see the Great Gubal Library, they told me I would found only ruins, that it had been blown up by an unknown group years ago. All that knowledge turned into nothingness... So I won’t scold you for bringing them here from the Source. But please, next time, bring them to me first. Even if I entirely trust your judgment, I would prefer to verify them before letting the member of the Crystarium accessing them. We’re never too careful...”

“So, bring them to you first so you can keep the salacious ones for yourself. Got it. Any preferences?”

“Wait.. what? N-no!”

“Nothing? Oky doky, I note that. Up for a drink? I’ll pay.”

“Don’t change the subject!”

Blushing, G’raha joined a whistling Temel in the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The problem when you are a librarian is that you can't help to ask yourself a lot of questions about how the library is functioning in a story. The Great Gubal Library is easily among the ones which are bothering me the most.


End file.
